


Blue and Endless

by Blue_Boy_Athos



Category: The Magnificent Seven (TV)
Genre: First Kiss, Friends to Lovers, Hurt/Comfort, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-11
Updated: 2021-01-11
Packaged: 2021-03-15 12:35:30
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,994
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28688769
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Blue_Boy_Athos/pseuds/Blue_Boy_Athos
Summary: He stood frozen in the doorway as they settled Vin on the bed, quickly soaking the nice linens in the young mans’ blood. He couldn’t tear his eyes away from the rapidly paling face of his friend.He felt a pair of large hands land on his shoulders and suddenly Buck was in front of him, taking up the whole of his vision.“C’mon Chris, we gotta get out of here, give Nathan room to work.”
Relationships: Chris Larabee/Vin Tanner
Comments: 6
Kudos: 23





	Blue and Endless

**Author's Note:**

  * For [TheLittlePlaidMaid77](https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheLittlePlaidMaid77/gifts).



> I’ve been lurking on this site for literal years, and I’m finally posting my first work here, this unprecedented event is largely thanks to TheLittlePlaidMaid77, who basically wrote the outline for this fic with me over the course of several tumbr conversations, and who was also my lovely beta (and who has also been writing Mag7 fic a lot longer than me, go check it out if you haven’t already)

John Keller had come riding into Four Corners at 10pm like the Devil himself was chasing him. He was a ranch hand for the Rileys, a family of well-off settlers that lived a few miles outside town, and apparently, they’d been taken hostage.  
Keller had breathlessly told the whole story once The Seven had all been gathered to the jail. At around 7pm that evening a group of bandits had hit the Rileys’ place, fortunately, they hadn’t realized that the Rileys had five ranch hands in a bunkhouse just out of view of the main house. Unfortunately, when the hands had tried to drive them off, the bandits had instead run inside the house, trapping the small family inside with them. Keller had been chosen to ride to town for help.  
When he’d left, the raiders and the hands had been in a stalemate, the hands covering every exit, and the raiders threatening to harm the family if anyone came close.

The towns’ protectors split up to gather their gear, planning to ride out from the livery in 20 minutes, Keller could give them a more detailed description of the situation on the ride to the ranch.  
As Chris Larabee grabbed his rifle and spare ammo from his room and headed towards the livery, he couldn’t shake the dark feeling that had grabbed onto him as Keller told his story. It wasn’t something he could pin down, nothing about Kellers tale felt shifty or wrong. It was like an itch at the back of his brain telling him that something bad was coming, a sense of foreboding.

As he approached the back of the livery he spotted Vin, and that itch got stronger. Vin turned and their eyes met. Chris felt his stomach tighten into knots. What the hell was happening? Keller had said they counted six in the gang, at least one of whom was wounded now, they’d faced worse than that, Hell, they’d faced worse odds the day he and Vin met.  
Vin had stopped and was waiting for him near the back door of the livery. When Chris got close he saw Vins’ eyebrows scrunch together in a way that meant he’d noticed something was wrong.

“Ya alright Chris?”

Chris drew to halt in front of his friend, just close enough that Vin had to tilt his chin up a bit to maintain eye contact, his wide, blue, gaze was worried now.  
Obeying some unknown instinct, Chris stepped across the final half a foot separating him from the tracker, bringing them just about nose-to-nose. He brought up one hand and slipped it under the fall of Vins’ hair and cupped the nape of his neck. Keeping a careful watch for the slightest sign of discomfort from the younger man he gently brought their foreheads together.  
Those eyes were so close now, they looked like the desert sky on a summer day, all clear and endless. The blond could feel the puff of the trackers’ breath, and he allowed himself a moment to appreciate the sweep of Vins’ lashes as he blinked.  
Chris unconsciously began to stroke the smaller mans’ neck with his thumb. Vin gently bumped their noses together and smiled.

“Hey there Cowboy.”

Chris couldn’t help huffing out a small laugh, before swiftly sobering again.

“Be careful out there tonight.”

Vins’ gaze became impossibly soft.

“Always am, you know that.”

He bumped their noses again.

“-No need to go bein’ a tease about it.”

Chris closed his eyes and pressed his forehead more firmly against Vins’, his hand moving up from the trackers’ neck and up through impossibly silken hair to cradle the base of his skull, and for a brief, dizzying moment, Chris felt like he had the whole goddamn world held in his hand.

“Yeah.”

Was the only reply he could muster, before he opened his eyes and reluctantly released his friend. As they parted they heard Buck yelling that it was time to ride.  
************

The plan had was simple, and it had gone off without a hitch. Keller had told them about a massive old oak that grew close enough to the Riley house that a couple of its branches hung over the roof. Vin had taken Ezra and Nathan and the three of them had climbed up the tree and crossed on to the roof of the house, the other four joined the ranch hands in firing at the house, distracting the raiders while the three on the roof broke in through the attic window. They’d managed to take down the men guarding the Rileys and from there it had been easy pickings, or at least, it should have been. At the last second, one of the bandits had gotten in a lucky shot, and Vin had been knocked off his feet as a bullet slammed into him.  
Chris had heard Nathan yell Vins’ name from outside, and his heart had just about stopped. He’d leapt from his cover and bolted to the house, not bothering to even confirm that the bandits were all down.

When he entered the house he’d been greeted by the hideous vision of the tracker sprawled on the ground, Nathan bent over him and desperately trying the stop the blood that was pumping obscenely from a wound on the trackers’ lower chest.  
Nathan was yelling orders and in another moment he and Josiah were carrying Vins’ limp form as a panicked Mrs. Riley guided them to the first-floor bedroom. Chris lurched foreword and followed behind them, feeling a strange numbness in his limbs.  
He stood frozen in the doorway as they settled Vin on the bed, quickly soaking the nice linens in the young mans’ blood. He couldn’t tear his eyes away from the rapidly paling face of his friend.  
He felt a pair of large hands land on his shoulders and suddenly Buck was in front of him, taking up the whole of his vision.

“C’mon Chris, we gotta get out of here, give Nathan room to work.”

“No, no I can’t-“

Even Chris’ tongue seemed paralyzed, making words heavy and clumsy in his mouth.

“Chris we’re just in the way here pard!”

“No no no-“

Chris grabbed at the front of Bucks’ shirt, needing to make him understand somehow, that was vin in there Goddamnit! He couldn’t leave him! Laying there all pale and quiet, his long hair matted with sweat and blood.  
What if he died? What if Chris left the room and Vins’ desert-sky eyes never opened again? Chris was dimly aware of struggling against Buck as the ladies man tried to drag him away-  
God he can’t he can’t. He’d left-he’d left Sarah and Adam, and they’d died. He couldn’t let that happen again, not now, not Vin God never Vin please-

Buck used his greater height and reach to his advantage to get a grip around Chris’ chest, and finally managed to bodily drag the struggling blond down the hall and back into the front room, where he forced his friends’ lanky form into a chair. He crouched down in front of the other man, keeping a firm grip on his friends’ wrists, just in case Chris decided to take a swing at him.

The ladies man felt a shameful twinge of jealousy. If it’d been him bleed’in out in that room, Chris would’ve been puttin on a grim face and waiting patiently outside with his flask.  
He looked up at Chris, trying to catch the other mans’ eye. When he did, he felt his breath hitch , Chris looked like he’d aged ten years in the last ten minutes, his green eyes were wide and glassy, like he wasn’t really there, his breath was coming in stuttering bursts and-

-And Buck had seen this before. Chris had only looked like this twice in the entire time he’d known him. The first was a year after he’d gotten married, Sarah had come down with lung-fever during the harsh winter that year, and Chris had just about torn himself apart with worry.

The second time…the second time had had been when he and Chris had come back from a business trip to find Chris’ home burned to the ground. The second time, Buck had hidden his friends’ gun, afraid that he’d try to join his wife and son in the cold earth.

And now, now Buck remembered the scene he’d nearly interrupted earlier. It’d been nearly time to ride out and he’d gone looking for Chris and Vin. He’d checked around the back of the livery stable and stopped himself from fully turning the corner, though he wasn’t certain either man would’ve noticed even if he hadn’t.

In the deepened shadows of the livery he’d seen Chris and Vin, standing so close they could be sharing breath, their foreheads touching. He hadn’t been close enough to hear the quiet words exchanged, but instinct kept him still and hidden until they parted, re-entering the world from whatever private realm they’d been in…  
Buck could’ve kicked himself for being a mule-headed fool, he’d been so busy worrying about being replaced, he’d failed to notice his best friend falling in love again. So busy feeling slighted that he didn’t notice Chris finding the one thing that could save him.

The same thing that could now kill him. The taller man could feel it in his gut, the certainty following on the heels of the revelation. If they lost Vin tonight, they’d lose Chris too.

Buck wouldn’t be able to pull him back from this kind of loss a second time, he’d barely been able to do it the first time, and even then, he’d only managed to get half of Chris back.

And now that second half was bleeding out in a strangers’ bed down the hall.

Buck was so lost in thought that it took him a couple minutes to notice that someone was standing beside him, he turned his head and looked up into JDs’ pale and drawn face, Christ, poor kid.

“Hey son, didn’t see ya there, what is it?”

“Uh…I um…”

Instead of continuing to try for words, JD held up what he had nervously clutched in his hands; Vins’ hat. Buck flashed the boy a weak smile.

“Thanks kid, why don’t you see if Ez needs any help?”

He’d caught a glimpse of the gambler tying up the three surviving bandits, and while he doubted Ezra really needed the assistance, he knew it would help JD to feel useful somehow. JD gave him a shaky nod and headed outside.  
He turned back to Chris, now holding the trackers hat. Chris’ eyes were immediately riveted to it, Buck risked completely releasing Chris and handed him the hat, which the blond gripped with both hands. Buck blew out a sigh, it seemed Chris had reached some kind of calm point. The taller man allowed himself to sit back on his haunches and un-tense. Chris slumped further into the chair, bringing the hat closer to himself, and began worrying the brim with his fingers.  
It was setting up to be a long night.

********  
Chris reached out and ran the back of his fingers down Vins’ stubbled cheek, the trackers’ eyelids continued to flutter, on the very edge of opening.

“C’mon Vin, that’s it, come on back.”

It had been three days since Vin got shot, three long, long days. Nathan had finally emerged from the Rileys’ guest-room after four hours, he’d been smiling exhaustedly and had delivered the good news; by some miracle, the bullet had gotten lodged between Vins’ ribs, best guess was that it had passed through a piece of furniture first, slowing it down enough to not tear straight through the tracker. The wound was still painful, had caused a lot of blood loss, and was still a high risk of infection, but it wasn’t fatal. As long as they carefully kept it clean and kept the fever down, it would heal up just fine. Nathan had even felt comfortable with moving Vin to the clinic after two days at the Rileys.

Which brings them to now, to Chris’ breath catching as those desert sky eyes finally fluttered open all the way.

“…Chris…?”

“Yeah, yeah it’s me.”

Vin groaned a little and turned his head to look at the blond

“Hey there Cowboy.”

Chris smiled, it was a wobbly, watery little thing, but it was a smile. Without thinking, Chris lifted up the hand he had clasped in his own and brushed his lips across the knuckles, a soft benediction. Then he carefully laid the hand down and set about getting Vin propped up. After he helped the tracker sip some water he settled back down on the edge of the mattress.

Chris suddenly found himself strangely afraid to meet Vins’ eyes, so he kept his own glued to the blankets that covered the trackers’ chest. After a few minutes of silence, he felt Vin touch his hand, and he allowed the other man to tangle their fingers together.

“You alright there pard?”

Chris took a shuddering breath, he could feel the tension and fear of the last two days weighing down on him.

“I’ll be alright, should be ask’in you that.”

Vin must have heard the shake in his voice, because he used their joined hands to tug the blond closer. Chris let himself to be moved, but he kept his gaze steadfastly on the bed spread. A burning was building in his chest and behind his eyes, pushing at walls he’d built nearly four years ago, and Chris was afraid of what would happen if it broke through.  
Vin lightly touched the older mans’ chin with his free hand.

“Chris?”

The blond just shook his head. The light touch on his chin became a full hand, softly cupping his cheek.  
Chris let out a choked sob, the walls were cracking, and he covered the hand on his cheek with his own. Vin made a concerned noise and Chris turned his head enough to press a kiss to the gun-calloused palm. Vin made another small sound and nudged Chris’ head up. The trackers’ face showed a mixture of concern and affection, Chris’ breath stuttered in his chest. He couldn’t stop himself from moving forward and wrapping his arms around Vin, remembering at the last moment to mind his wound.

The tracker let out a breath and was quick to return the embrace, pressing his palms wide against the blonds’ shuddering back. Despite his best efforts, Chris felt hot tears escape from behind his tightly closed eyelids. Vins’ warm breath gusted over his ear as he spoke.

“It’s alright Chris, I’m here, I’m here…”

To his embarrassment the gunslinger could feel more tears welling up and he pressed his face into Vins’ bed-wild hair, they’d washed it as best they could while he slept, and it smelled like soap and Nathans’ herbal teas.

“I know, I know, but you almost weren’t and god Vin, I just can’t-“

Chris felt like the words were trying to choke him, Vin petted his back and tried to soothe him down but the walls had cracked and crumbled and for the first time since he’d lost his family, Chris Larabees’ heart was laid out, open and vulnerable.  
He shifted back and moved both hands to cradle Vins’ face. He met that worried gaze, and used a thumb to stroke the soft skin beneath one blue eye. Then he moved forward and pressed a kiss to the younger mans’ forehead.

“I can’t lose you vin”

The words were whispered against Vins’ skin.

“Chris-“

“I love you too goddamn much to bear it.”

There it was, the secret that Chris had buried so deep within himself that he even he couldn’t find it, was finally unearthed and brought gasping into the light. Chris lingered long enough to place another kiss against Vins’ hairline before moving back to face the trackers’ response.

And he found Vin looking up at him with naked awe and such achingly sweet hope that Chris thought he might start crying again.

“Can-can you repeat that?”

Chris took a deep breath, the air finally feeling like it was reaching his lungs properly.

“I love you Vin Tanner, probably have since I first saw you with that damn broom in your hands.”

Vin inhaled sharply, the hands on Chris’ back were now tightly fisted in his shirt, his arms stiff and humming with tension, as if Chris would dissolve into campfire smoke if Vin didn’t hold him tight enough.

“-I didn’t even think I could love someone like this again, I thought I’d buried that part of me with my family but Vin-“

Chris didn’t get a chance to finish that thought as he was yanked downward with an alarming force, he managed to avoid landing on Vins’ wound as the tracker pulled Chris against him and kissed the blond like the world was ending. As the trackers’ chapped lips met his own, Chris felt the final piece of his fractured world click back into place. His muscles relaxed and wound his arms back around Vin, pressing him close enough that he could feel the trackers’ strong heartbeat echo in his own chest, and he reveled in the feeling of Vin, warm and close.

The kiss finally broke and the younger man nuzzled Chris’ whiskery cheek, The blond could feel the other mans’ smile against his skin.

“God, I love you too Chris Larabee, you damn ornery cowboy.”

Chris laughed, a big, proper one that shook his ribs. He tilted his head so he could kiss the space between Vins’ brows and moved a hand through the soft and unruly wave of his hair.

“Don’t call me a cowboy.”

Vin buried his face in the crook of Chris’ neck and released a cackling laugh there. Chris felt like he was absorbing that laugh directly into himself, like a plant taking in life-giving sunshine after a long winter.


End file.
